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For Your Mobile Enterprise, Build a Genius Bar, NOT A Help Desk

As companies go mobile and allow employees to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), they need to change how they provide technical support. Here’s a friendlier, better way of doing it.

Everyone’s suffered through an unpleasant encounter with a member of your company's technical help desk. Some young, would-be Alpha Geek who sarcastically overwhelms you with jargon while he – and it’s always a he – condescends to fix your laptop or printer.

I think Jimmy Fallon nailed it in the late 1990s with his “Nick Burns, Your Company's Computer Guy” character on Saturday Night Live.

Oh, By the Way, You’re Welcome

That was then. In the mobile age, we aren’t so easily intimidated. Gadgets are not only easier to use, but – let's face it – we as a society are tech-savvier (read: geekier) than ever before. In a BYOD age, we are adept at solving our own tech issues using Google, user forum or pal. Indeed, we often know more about our devices than our alleged technical betters.

Corporate help desks need to adapt to the post-PC age. Out with the patronizing Nick Burns-types; in with advisors who know better than to treat us as idiots, but instead as valued customers and partners.

This is the experience that SAP is trying to create with its newly-opened Mobility Solutions Centers.

(If you happen to be an SAP employee, check out the excellent overview of the MSCs by Jerry Janda here: https://blogs.wdf.sap.corp/sapnews_en/2012/07/global-it-opens-new-one-stop-mobile-shops/)

SAP employees can walk in and get in-person advice from mobile experts in Bangalore, London, Mumbai, Paris and our headquarters, Walldorf. They can also try out smartphones and tablets to see what makes the best sense for their workstyle.

"I rented an Ipad for 2 weeks in order to 'train' myself on the device here in MSC Paris," one employee wrote in reaction to Janda's article. "Knowledgable, friendly and cool staff helped to get the device ready very quickly. The center is equiped with a good range of devices and the design of the MSC is modern and young. Well done! Keep it up guys :)"

Employees can also get support or training for their devices or apps – all in a stylish environment that recalls the Genius Bar environment at an Apple Store.

“These are cool places where you can come and feel comfortable to ask any question you want,” said SAP CIO Oliver Bussmann. His team runs the 5 existing MSCs, and plans to have a total of 11 running worldwide soon, including Palo Alto, Vancouver, Sao Paulo (Brazil) and, starting July 16, at the North American headquarters in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

Service Without The Snark

Before opening the MSCs, SAP had locations where employees could bring their mobile devices to IT staffers. But as Bussmann admits, “these were typical repair shops, some not much more than a closet in size.”

And unlike typical help desks, MSC experts aren’t under pressure to fix problems quickly and move onto the next trouble ticket, according to Bussmann. That creates the friendlier vibe that will encourage experts to spend more time with each employee and help him or her try out productivity-enhancing apps they might not have previously considered.

Indeed, the MSCs will be showcases for SAP apps for not only internal workers, but also visiting customers.

Remote employees – and SAP has many of those – can still opt to get phone or e-mail support for their mobile devices. Bussmann encourages them to stop by an MSC if they have the chance.

The next step? Turning the MSCs into the primary provider of front-line, hands-on support for SAP employees with laptop troubles. Though in the post-PC age, Bussmann said providing laptop support is becoming a moot point.

“There is more and more discussion we are having about moving certain groups of employees entirely away from laptops,” he said.